Time Crisis Project Titan"Sequel to the smash Arcade and Playstation hit, ‘Time Crisis’, Project Titan has been one of the most eagerly anticipated games this year. Continuing the formula of intense arcade shooting of the first game, it’s time to dust off your light gun and sharpen your shooting skills. "

PSone REVIEW:

The President of Caruba has been assassinated, and you are the main suspect! Accused of a crime you did not commit, you have 48hrs to clear your name… Time for the One Man Army, time for Richard Miller…

A couple of years ago a radical game called Time Crisis appeared on the scene and took the Playstation by storm. A conversion of the arcade game of the same name, it involved frantic on screen shooting of a kind never seen before in light gun games. Combined with the accuracy of it\'s purpose made light gun, the G-Con 45, it presented game players with a brand new arcade experience without the need for endless £1 coins…

Since then the Playstation has been crying out for it\'s sequel, which has now finally been released in the form of \'Time Crisis:Project Titan\'. It is just unfortunate that the excellent Time Crisis 2 couldn\'t make it to the console, perhaps we\'ll see it on the PS2 (Namco listen up!).

Following on from the story in the previous game, you play the part of secret agent and \'One Man Army\', Richard Miller. The president of the fictional South American country of Caruba, one President Xavier Seranno, has been assassinated. As the number one suspect you now have 48hrs to clear your name and find the real killer, before being turned over to the authorities by your long time employers, the V.S.S.E…

A lead from an informant going by the name of Adacus starts your investigation on a yacht mid-ocean owned by Kantaris, who you had dealings with (and may have killed…) in the first Time Crisis installment. A slight cock up in the continuity department me thinkst! And so the game starts with Richard Miller parachuting onto Kantaris\'s yacht.

As game play goes, this game is about as basic as it gets. If it moves then shoot it, reload your gun and shoot some more. The tricky bit comes in knowing who to shoot first, since the enemies have varying degrees of accuracy. Luckily most of them can\'t shoot if their lives were to depend on it, and so end up as G-Cun fodder. Those that can, do so with deadly accuracy so \'enemy management\' starts to get a bit of an issue. Attack patterns are always the same so once you\'ve memorized when these guys appear, then you\'ve got it sussed! Improved AI and Logic Patterns - I don\'t think so… Namco have provided one innovation for the game with the multiple hiding system. This allows you to swap hiding places during Boss levels, but other than that nothing is really new. A separate weapon function might have been nice, or shootable power ups or something, anything…

There are two game modes to keep you occupied. Story mode follows the story of the game from start to finish going through the four levels sequentially, with action taking place on Kantaris\'s Yacht, the Curuban Airport, and the Rio Oro Mine. Time Attack allows you to play any of these levels against the clock. Obviously, there is no real difference between the modes and the lack of a Special Mode à la Time Crisis is sadly lacking, since this was a complete extra set of levels with multiple routes and endings, and was one of the best things in the first game. Once again the game is single player only. A two player co-operative mode would liven it up no end!

The graphics in the game were quite a disappointment. Considering the development time for this game, and the number of times that it\'s release has been postponed, I am afraid to say that I expected better. Graphically, the Playstation has moved on a lot since the first game came out and to see a game where seaming is so obvious is suprising. The characters also have a \'drawn with a crayon\' look about them, and although nicely animated, they do seem to be suffering from terminal stiffness (madam!) of the joints. Some of the scenery is interactive and can be destroyed which is a nice touch, and using the game engine to show cut scenes also helps to keep the game flowing, rather than having to wait while a lengthy CGI cut scene loads up.

One thing that Namco did get right is the music and sounds for the game. The gun sounds are excellent, turn the sound up and the neighbours will be dialing 999 for the Police! Music to is good and adds to the atmosphere of the game, enhancing it\'s frantic pace. The enemy characters all shout some pretty corny one liners before you put them out of their misery. These include shouts of \'Get him!\', \' Shoot him !\' and a few other choice phrases.

Unfortunately, because of it\'s rather dated graphics, un-innovative game play and lack of extra modes Time Crisis: Project Titan has not lived up to expectations. It\'s life span is short and is too easy for most light gun fans. I completed the game pretty much first go with the difficulty set to Easy. An opportunity wasted, this is definitely one to rent rather than buy.

Stop Press: At the E3 Games Show in Los Angeles, Namco and Sony have announced that Time Crisis 2 will be coming out on PS2. As with the previous games, this is gun based and will work with both the G-Con 45 and a new model, called the G-Con 2. Graphics are said to be arcade quality and there is a strong likely hood of a 2 player I-Link and split screen mode. The game is due to be released this winter.

James Goode "I was a really Time Crisis fan when the first game came out, and played it an awful lot. As you can imagine I was looking forward to this sequel. The game has not lived up to my expectations. The improvements to graphics and game play are small and without the extra Special Mode, in my view the best part of the first game, it\'s life span in both content and \'boredom factor\' is desperately short.

So much could have been done to it. A Two player co-operative mode, power ups, extra weapons, new Special Mode, multiple routes through the game, the list goes on and on.

Unfortunately a wasted opportunity to make an excellent sequel, try again Namco !"

Graphics 10/20Playability 35/50

Sound 8/10Lastability 10/20

63%

This game is little more than average and we advise renting or play-testing before considering a purchase.

REVIEW SCORE GUIDE:

OUR PLEDGE:

We promise that we have fully played 'Time Crisis Project Titan' before writing this review. The scores given above are our honest opinion and were not influenced in any way by the manufacturer or distributor of the game.

SUMMARY OF FINAL RATING (%)

00 - 59This makes your console seem like an older machine. It utilises little or none of the PSone power.

60 - 69This game is little more than average and we advise renting or play-testing before considering a purchase.

70 - 79This is a good solid title that should still appeal to those who like this type of game.

80 - 89This is a fantastic game that we think you will enjoy playing for quite some time.

90 - 100This game either pushes the boundaries of it's genre further than ever before on this system,
or creates a completely new gaming experience. Either way, it should not be missed and is an essential purchase in our opinion.

IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ:

It is very important that you are aware that the criteria we use to obtain review scores on the PS2 is very different to that used for games on the original Playstation (PSone). The Processing and Graphical power of the two consoles are vastly different and as our reviews are graded against what we estimate is the achievable potential of each system, it does not mean in any way that a game scoring 80 percent on PS2 is worse than a Playstation (PSone) equivalent which scores 95.